On August 11, 2015, the draft Michigan Science Standards were presented to the Michigan Board of Education, at the State Board of Education Meeting, by Norma Jean Sass and Linda Forward. The next step is the public review and comment sessions – face-to-face and online. After this set of meetings, the results of public comment will be presented to the State Board on October 13 and it is anticipated that the Board will take some action at that time and vote on the standards.

The Michigan Science Education Community is very happy with the outcome of several years of work on the Standards. The proposed standards are VERY similar to other high-quality science standards and include several opportunities for Michigan teachers to provide a “Michigan” context. The Performance Expectations are the outcome measures. (The Michigan contexts are not assessable). If the State Board would adopt these standards we would be the 15th state in the country to have similar standards. These proposed standards are based upon the work from A Framework for Science Education. Michigan educators had a key role in the writing and review process for these standards. Additional “support” materials will be provided to teachers and they will be able to access materials from NSTA to help in their learning and adoption of the standards into their practice.

This is a special Michigan Science Matters Network eBlast for August 17, 2015 provided by the Michigan Science Matters Network. Please forward this eBlast on to other science educators in your school/district. If you have questions or comments, please forward them to: